1. Technical Field
The following relates generally to a utility vehicle such as a pickup truck, and in particular to a pickup truck bed for use therein which has one or more access doors mounted in the side thereof.
2. State of the Art
A utility vehicle, such as a pickup truck, can have an open bed in the back thereof. The open bed is usually oriented horizontally, such that the pickup truck user can place items thereon. The bed is surrounded, or otherwise defined at its perimeter edges, by vertically oriented walls, such that the items placed on the bed are prevented from slipping off or falling out of the bed by the walls on the perimeter thereof.
A tailgate, or pivoting door, is often placed in the vertical wall, or is the vertical wall itself, at the rear of the utility vehicle to provide access to the bed. The tailgate can pivot between a vertical position and a horizontal position about a hinge between the tailgate and the truck bed. Lowering the tailgate from its vertical position to its horizontal position oftentimes provides better access to the bed and facilitates the loading and unloading of objects into and out of the bed.
The bed and surrounding walls function together to define and serve as a cargo storage area and a means of transporting various items and objects placed in the bed. Indeed, since the inception of the pickup truck, the bed of the pickup truck has been used to transport a myriad of items and objects from place to place, as desired by the user. It follows that the item, or items, the user transports can be of any shape, size, dimension, profile, and configuration that fits within the bed. But, depending on the unique configuration of the object to be placed in the bed, the user may wish to place the object at a particular spot within the bed.
Factors that contribute to the selection of the object's placement include, for example, accessibility, convenience and safety. Many times the user will place lighter items that could possibly blow out of the bed in the front of the bed. Other times, the user will place items in the front of the bed so as to prevent the item from sliding in the bed during the process of applying the brakes to stop the truck. Sometimes, it isn't the user that decides where items ultimately end up in the bed, but is instead the object itself that moves in the bed during transport.
To reach items in the bed, the user must either climb over the walls of the bed or operate the tailgate and climb onto the bed from the rear of the truck. This can be a cumbersome process, and at the very least, inconvenient. What's more, the user could be towing a fifth wheel trailer or a bumper hitch trailer that makes it impossible to lower the tailgate to gain entry into the truck bed. Further, the item the user wishes to reach may be buried, or otherwise surrounded, by other items in the truck bed, forcing the user to climb over all of the items in the bed just to reach the desired item. This is especially true when the buried, desired item is near the front of the truck bed, away from the tailgate.
Additionally, the truck user may wish to transport passengers in the truck bed. However, to safely transport such passengers, the truck bed must provide required safety conditions. Also, to gain entrance into the truck bed, the passenger must necessarily climb over the vertical walls of the truck bed. Alternatively, the passengers can access the bed via the tailgate, but must nevertheless climb into the bed, and perhaps climb over any objects in the truck bed to reach any provided seating accommodations.
In view of the foregoing, there is a great necessity for a truck bed that addresses the problems presented above and makes pickup trucks more adept for today's growing needs and versatility of the user's preferences. Truck bed accessories and attachments are a huge market for adding different varieties of uses of a truck bed. The present disclosure addresses the aforementioned issues.